A storage and/or transport container for fluent material is known which comprises an erect and annular side wall and a flat and horizontal bottom wall joined together at the outer edge of the bottom wall and lower edge of the side wall to form an upwardly open vessel, and a flexible bag or bladder within this vessel that lies against its inner surface and that itself contains the material being transported or stored. The side and bottom walls are typically made of round-section metal bars or rods that are spot-welded together in a cross-crossed gridwork with the bars welded at the intersections. It is also possible to use profiled bars and is in fact standard to provide a profiled rim element around the upper edge of the side wall. Frequently extra bars are integrated into the bottom or side wall for increased localized stiffness.
In U.S. patent application 07/422,390 filed 16 Oct. 1989 by G. Roser et al the vertical rods of the side wall are bent over into the plane of the floor panel so that they form this bottom panel, additional reinforcement bars being added for stiffness if desired. The bent-over bars and the laid-in bars are welded together. This make a very stable package that very safely contains the contained bladder. Such an arrangement can be built relatively easily even by automated procedures.
Another system described in German patent document 3,839,999 is of substantially simpler construction. In it the side wall and the bottom wall are formed of a single planar barmesh section. L-section splice elements are welded at the corners between the side wall and bottom wall. This container can be built relatively easily by wholly automated equipment.